Executive Board

Stéphane Richard, Ph.D., Founder and President at French BioBeach

Dr Richard graduated in X-ray crystallography from the University Joseph Fourier (Grenoble, France). He then joined the team of Prof. Joseph P. Noel in the Structural Biology Laboratory of the Salk Institute to study the biosynthesis of terpenoid natural products. As part of the Jack Skirball Chemical Biology and Proteomics Center of the Salk Institute, Dr Richard then focused his research on the chemo-enzymatic derivatization of natural products to develop novel therapeutically relevant compounds. After pursuing molecular engineering research in the field of biofuels at Sapphire Energy Inc. for over a year, he recently joined MEDIT SA (http://www.medit-pharma.com), a French Software company in the field of Structure Based Drud design, as their VP of Business Development in order to set-up their US operations.

Florence Brunel, Ph.D. – Investigator, Research Chemistry at Amylin Pharmaceuticals, Inc.

Dr Brunel graduated with a Ph.D. from the University of Louisville, Louisville, KY under the supervision of Professor Arno F. Spatola, and with an engineering degree of the Ecole Nationale Superieure de Chimie de Montpellier (Montpellier, France). She then joined the team of Professor Philip Dawson at the Scripps Research Institute, working mainly on studying the glycoprotein gp41 of the HIV virus, and using peptides to characterize different neutralizing antibodies that bind to it. In 2008, she joined Amylin Pharmaceuticals, Inc. using her knowledge in peptides in their drug discovery research programs in the fields of diabetes and obesity.

Erin Bomati, Ph.D. – Scientist at Strategic Enzyme Applications, Inc.

Dr. Bomati received her Ph.D. in Biochemistry from the University of California, San Diego where she conducted research on natural product biosynthesis under the supervision of Professor Joseph P. Noel. She then became a postdoctoral scientist at the CNRS in Marseille, France where she initiated the molecular evolution of laccases for
applications in the textile industry. Returning to San Diego, Dr. Bomati became a postdoctoral scientist at the Scripps Institution of Oceanography, where she worked on the biochemical, spectroscopic, and structural characterization of marine fluorescent and bioluminescent proteins. In March of 2009 she joined Strategic Enzyme Applications, Inc where employs protein engineering and high throughput screening to
investigate and optimize industrially-relevant biotransformations.

Claire Tiraby, Ph.D. – Scientist at The Scripps Research Institute.

Dr. Tiraby received her Ph.D. in Molecular and Cellular Biology from the University of Paul Sabatier, Toulouse, France where she conducted research in the field of obesity and metabolic diseases under the supervision of Professor Dominique Langin, INSERM. She then became a postdoctoral scientist at the Scripps Research Institute in La Jolla,California, in the laboratory of Dr. Anastasia Kralli, where she has been developing a project involving metabolism and cancer.

Florence Tiraby – COO at Invivogen, Inc.

Fanny Estermann - Graduate Student at The Salk Institute

Fanny Estermann did her first years in graduate school in Montpellier at the Institute of Human Genetic (IGH), after what she decided to join Dr. Clodagh O’Shea laboratory at Salk Institute, San Diego, where she is conducting research working in the field of cancer treatments. She is working in understanding how adenoviruses are inactivating p53 in order to engineer a virus able to kill tumor cells but not normal cells, called oncolytic virus.  She discovered a new epigenetic mechanism of p53 inactivation by a small viral protein enabling the rational development of true p53 tumor-selective adenoviral therapies. She will receive her Ph.D. in Molecular & Cellular Biology from the University of Montpellier, France in the end of 2010 where she accepted a position as a postdoctoral scientist.

Advisory board

Catherine Tachdjian, Ph.D. – Executive Director Chemistry at Senomyx, Inc.
Alain Rolland, Ph.D. – Senior Vice President, Product Development at VICAL, Inc.
Alan J. Lewis, Ph.D – President & CEO at Juvenile Diabetes Research Foundation
Hervé Le Calvez, Ph.D. – President & CEO at ABBIOTEC, LLC.
Francois-Xavier Frapaise, M.D. – Chief Scientific Officer at Optimer Pharmaceuticals, Inc.
Lionel Bochurberg, Ph.D, JD, Esq. VP International Legal Operations ar Next Wave